I'm late to the party, but wanted to say I liked your article Coach Palfrey!

I used to do planks, on occasion, but I've come to believe that the key to worthwhile core strength (meaning the type we want to develop to become more functional humans) is to teach ourselves to maintain healthy spinal posture while doing other exercises, especially exercises that mimic things we might do in real life. So I consider maintaining excellent spinal posture during squatting, deadlifting, OH pressing, farmer's walks, carrying a sandbag on your shoulders, doing a kettlebell clean, etc, to be the key to developing truly useful core strength.

I guess I'd say that one should be "doing abs" throughout the entire workout, without ever doing a single exercise that most would consider an ab exercise.

This is counter-intuitive in our current fitness culture. Thanks for bringing it up and making us all think about it a bit.

I'm late to the party, but wanted to say I liked your article Coach Palfrey!

I used to do planks, on occasion, but I've come to believe that the key to worthwhile core strength (meaning the type we want to develop to become more functional humans) is to teach ourselves to maintain healthy spinal posture while doing other exercises, especially exercises that mimic things we might do in real life. So I consider maintaining excellent spinal posture during squatting, deadlifting, OH pressing, farmer's walks, carrying a sandbag on your shoulders, doing a kettlebell clean, etc, to be the key to developing truly useful core strength.

I guess I'd say that one should be "doing abs" throughout the entire workout, without ever doing a single exercise that most would consider an ab exercise.

This is counter-intuitive in our current fitness culture. Thanks for bringing it up and making us all think about it a bit.

Outside Magazine is available here--I've picked it up a few times at Mountain Equipment Coop and it's been good. I hope you end up writing for them! I may have to look around and see if anyone brings Outdoor Fitness in here. We used to have a good international magazine shop that I liked, but they closed down, and I haven't looked for a replacement. Maybe Dirlot and I just have to start lobbying our public library for it!

“If I didn't define myself for myself, I would be crunched into other people's fantasies for me and eaten alive.” --Audre Lorde

Outside Magazine is available here--I've picked it up a few times at Mountain Equipment Coop and it's been good. I hope you end up writing for them! I may have to look around and see if anyone brings Outdoor Fitness in here. We used to have a good international magazine shop that I liked, but they closed down, and I haven't looked for a replacement. Maybe Dirlot and I just have to start lobbying our public library for it!

Yep, fingers crossed. I'll probably aim for it in the new year - my to do list is about a mile long right now! Definitely think you guys should lobby the library for it, my editor would love that!